Viewing the Jubilee correlations of the planets

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This chart is a list of the Jubilee years between about 5200 BC and 4200 AD, showing for each one whether and in what ways it’s found to be marked by astronomical events. The data comes from searches of the Regulus-oriented and Spica-oriented astronomical calendars in which the focus was just on Jubilee years. For deeper study you may want to do your own exploration of the data. You can do this by clicking on “astronomical calendars“. Here you can investigate more specific details of the conjunctions highlighted here, or maybe investigate astronomical markings of other years besides just the Jubilee years and their associated final Sabbath years, or maybe investigate other ideas of the length of the gap during the Babylonian exile and how it may have played out historically. But the data presented here is a good starting point, and should serve as a guide in exactly what additional studies might be of use.

The first column is the year, using the customary astronomical representation in which BC years are expressed as negative numbers (-100 = 101 BC, -999 = 1000 BC, etc).

The second column is the number of the Jubilee, using the year -4150 as the reference point from which the other Jubilees have been numbered.

The third column is about Venus – using green highlighting to show which Jubilees are marked at both beginning and end by conjunctions of Venus with Regulus or Spica.

The fourth column is about Saturn – using blue highlighting to show which Jubilees are marked at beginning or end by conjunctions of Saturn with Regulus or Spica.

The fifth column is about Jupiter – using purple highlighting to show which Jubilees are marked at beginning or end by conjunctions of Jupiter with Regulus or Spica.

The sixth column is about Mars – using red highlighting to show which Jubilees are marked at beginning or end by conjunctions of Mars with Regulus or Spica.

The seventh column is about the exceptionally close conjunctions of Venus with Jupiter – using yellow highlighting to show which Jubilees are marked at beginning or end by these conjunctions.

The eighth and ninth columns are about lunar eclipses occurring in month 1 or month 7 of the Hebrew lunar year. Column eight shows eclipses which occur in year [1] of a given Jubilee period, while column nine shows eclipses which occur in year [49] of that Jubilee period. The abbreviations T1, T7, P1, and P7 indicate the kind of eclipse and which month it occurred in, with “T” being total and “P” being partial. Any total eclipse, or pair of eclipses which include a total eclipse, is highlighted in dark brown. A partial eclipse or pair of partial eclipses is highlighted in light brown.

There is much more to be said about each of these columns, but the details will probably make more sense if you can first see what we’re talking about. The above info will be repeated after the chart, but with fuller details, including some observations of potentially significant dates, and also some key dates which are clearly found to be marked both in history and in the heavens. Here’s the chart:

-5228

-22

T1

-5179

-21

Venus/Jupiter

49

P7

-5130

-20

Venus/Regulus

-5081

-19

Venus/Spica

-5032

-18

Jupiter/Regulus triple

49

P7,P1

-4983

-17

Venus/Regulus

Jupiter/Spica double

49

-4934

-16

Venus/Spica

Mars/Regulus double

49

-4885

-15

-4836

-14

Venus/Regulus

Mars/Spica double

49

-4787

-13

Venus/Spica

Saturn/Regulus triple

49

-4738

-12

Venus/Jupiter

49

-4689

-11

-4640

-10

Venus/Regulus

Saturn/Regulus triple

49

Jupiter/Regulus triple

1

-4591

-9

Jupiter/Spica double

1

-4542

-8

-4493

-7

Saturn/Regulus triple

49

Venus/Jupiter

49

-4444

-6

Venus/Regulus

Mars/Regulus triple

1

-4395

-5

-4346

-4

Mars/Spica double

1

-4297

-3

Venus/Regulus

-4248

-2

-4199

-1

-4150

0

Venus/Regulus

Saturn/Regulus triple

1

-4101

1

Venus/Spica

P7

-4052

2

-4003

3

Venus/Regulus

Saturn/Regulus triple

1

Mars/Regulus double

49

-3954

4

Venus/Spica

-3905

5

Jupiter/Regulus triple

49

Mars/Spica double

49

P1

-3856

6

Venus/Regulus

Jupiter/Spica triple

49

-3807

7

Venus/Spica

-3758

8

-3709

9

P7,T1

-3660

10

Venus/Spica

-3611

11

-3562

12

P7,P1

-3513

13

Jupiter/Regulus triple

1

Mars/Regulus triple

1

T7

-3464

14

Jupiter/Spica triple

1

-3415

15

Mars/Spica double

1

-3366

16

P1

T7,T1

-3317

17

Venus/Regulus

T7

-3268

18

-3219

19

P1

-3170

20

Venus/Regulus

Venus/Jupiter

49

P7,T1

T7

-3121

21

-3072

22

Mars/Regulus double

49

-3023

23

Venus/Regulus

T1

-2974

24

Mars/Spica double

49

T7,T1

P7

-2925

25

-2876

26

Venus/Regulus

-2827

27

Venus/Spica

T7,T1

-2778

28

T7,P1

-2729

29

Venus/Regulus

Jupiter/Spica triple

49

-2680

30

Venus/Spica

-2631

31

T7,P1

-2582

32

Mars/Regulus triple

1

P7

-2533

33

Venus/Spica

-2484

34

Mars/Spica double

1

-2435

35

T1

P7

-2386

36

-2337

37

Venus/Regulus

Jupiter/Spica triple

1

-2288

38

-2239

39

P1

-2190

40

Venus/Regulus

-2141

41

Mars/Regulus double

49

-2092

42

P1

-2043

43

Venus/Regulus

Saturn/Spica double

49

Jupiter/Regulus double

49

Mars/Spica double

49

P7

-1994

44

-1945

45

-1896

46

Venus/Regulus

Saturn/Spica triple

49

-1847

47

Venus/Spica

-1798

48

Venus/Spica

-1749

49

Venus/Regulus

Saturn/Spica double

49

-1700

50

Venus/Spica

-1651

51

Jupiter/Regulus double

1

Mars/Regulus triple

1

-1602

52

Saturn/Spica double

49

Jupiter/Spica double

49

-1553

53

Venus/Spica

Mars/Spica double

1

-1504

54

-1455

55

-1406

56

Venus/Spica

Saturn/Spica double

1

-1357

57

-1308

58

-1259

59

Saturn/Spica triple

1

-1210

60

Venus/Regulus

Jupiter/Spica double

1

Mars/Regulus double

49

-1161

61

P1

-1112

62

Saturn/Spica double

1

Mars/Spica double

49

P7

-1063

63

Venus/Regulus

-1014

64

-965

65

-916

66

Venus/Regulus

Jupiter/Regulus triple

49

-867

67

Venus/Spica

Jupiter/Spica double

49

-818

68

-769

69

Venus/Regulus

P1

P7

-720

70

Venus/Spica

Mars/Regulus triple

1

-671

71

-622

72

Venus/Regulus

Mars/Spica double

1

Venus/Jupiter

1

P1

-573

73

Venus/Spica

P7,T1

-524

74

Jupiter/Regulus triple

1

-475

75

Jupiter/Spica double

1

-659

71

Saturn/Spica triple

49

-610

72

Mars/Regulus triple

49

-561

73

Venus/Regulus

Venus/Jupiter

49

-512

74

Saturn/Spica double

49

Jupiter/Regulus triple

1

Mars/Spica triple

49

-463

75

Jupiter/Spica triple

1

Venus/Jupiter

1

P1

-414

76

Venus/Regulus

P7

-365

77

-316

78

Saturn/Spica double

1

-267

79

Venus/Regulus

-218

80

Venus/Spica

-169

81

Saturn/Spica triple

1

-120

82

Venus/Regulus

Mars/Regulus triple

1

-71

83

Venus/Spica

P1

P7

-22

84

Saturn/Spica double

1

Mars/Spica double

1

27

85

76

86

Venus/Spica

P1

125

87

P7,T1

174

88

223

89

Venus/Spica

272

90

Jupiter/Spica triple

49

T1

321

91

Mars/Regulus triple

49

T7

370

92

Venus/Spica

419

93

Venus/Regulus

Mars/Spica triple

49

468

94

P1

P7,T1

517

95

T7

566

96

Venus/Regulus

615

97

664

98

Jupiter/Spica triple

1

T1

T7

713

99

Venus/Regulus

762

100

Venus/Spica

811

101

Mars/Regulus triple

1

T1

860

102

T7,T1

T7

909

103

Venus/Spica

Mars/Spica triple

1

958

104

Jupiter/Regulus double

49

1007

105

T1

1056

106

Venus/Spica

T7,P1

1105

107

1154

108

1203

109

Venus/Spica

T7,P1

1252

110

Mars/Regulus triple

49

P7

1301

111

1350

112

Jupiter/Regulus double

1

Mars/Spica triple

49

1399

113

Saturn/Regulus triple

49

Jupiter/Spica double

49

T1

T7

1448

114

Venus/Regulus

1497

115

1546

116

Saturn/Regulus triple

49

1595

117

P1

P7

1644

118

1693

119

1742

120

V/Reg, V/Spica

Mars/Regulus triple

1

P1

1791

121

Jupiter/Spica double

1

P7

1840

122

Mars/Spica triple

1

1889

123

V/Reg, V/Spica

Saturn/Regulus triple

1

1938

124

1987

125

2036

126

V/Reg, V/Spica

Saturn/Regulus triple

1

2085

127

Jupiter/Regulus triple

49

2134

128

P7

2183

129

Venus/Regulus

Saturn/Regulus double

1

Mars/Regulus triple

49

2232

130

2281

131

Mars/Spica triple

49

2330

132

2379

133

2428

134

2477

135

Jupiter/Regulus triple

1

2526

136

Venus/Spica

Jupiter/Spica double

1

2575

137

2624

138

2673

139

Mars/Regulus triple

1

2722

140

Venus/Regulus

2771

141

Mars/Spica triple

1

2820

142

2869

143

V/Spica, V/Reg

2918

144

2967

145

3016

146

Venus/Regulus

3065

147

P1

P7

3114

148

Mars/Regulus triple

49

3163

149

Venus/Regulus

3212

150

Jupiter/Regulus triple

49

Mars/Spica triple

49

3261

151

Jupiter/Spica triple

49

T1

3310

152

3359

153

Venus/Spica

3408

154

P1

3457

155

P7,T1

3506

156

Venus/Spica

3555

157

Venus/Regulus

3604

158

Jupiter/Regulus triple

1

Mars/Regulus triple

1

P1

P7,T1

3653

159

Venus/Spica

Jupiter/Spica triple

1

T7

3702

160

Mars/Spica triple

1

3751

161

3800

162

T1

T7,T1

3849

163

T7

3898

164

Venus/Spica

3947

165

P1

3996

166

Venus/Regulus

P7,T1

T7

4045

167

Venus/Spica

Mars/Regulus triple

49

4094

168

4143

169

Venus/Regulus

Mars/Spica triple

49

T1

4192

170

T7,T1

The first column is the year, using the customary astronomical representation in which BC years are expressed as negative numbers (-100 = 101 BC, -999 = 1000 BC, etc), using Gregorian years in the Gregorian era after 1582 AD, and Julian years before that. What is shown in this column is the Julian/Gregorian year for the date on which the Jubilee year of a 49-year Jubilee cycle begins. The conjunctions in the other columns which are marked by [1] occur in this same Jubilee year. But for the conjunctions which are marked by [49], this indicates that they occur in the final Sabbath year, year 49 of the cycle. To determine the year of occurrence for these, you can either add 48 to the year shown, or just subtract one from the date of the following Jubilee year.

The second column is the number of the Jubilee, using the year -4150 as the reference point from which the other Jubilees have been numbered. To a degree, this reference point is arbitrary. No strong claim is being made for the significance of this date – but it has been chosen because it is a Jubilee year according to the historical pre-exile schedule; the zero point does have to go somewhere; and a study of Saturn and Venus (see Restoring the Timetable of Sabbath and Jubilee Years) identifies it, based on astronomical patterns, as the best candidate for the starting point of a marked 6 or 7 thousand-year period.

Note that there’s a discontinuity at about Jubilee 73, where this and several of the surrounding Jubilees are shown according to both their pre-exile and post-exile alignments. The length of discontinuity used in this study is the 12-year or 61-year gap which was found in previous studies to give the best astronomical fit and to also have a plausible historical rationale (see Rediscovering an Ancient Chronology, and Restoring the Timetable of Sabbath and Jubilee Years).

The third column is about Venus – using green highlighting to show which Jubilees are marked at both beginning and end by conjunctions of Venus with Regulus or Spica. Typically it’s every third Jubilee that’s marked in this way by Venus/Regulus. The Venus/Spica pattern is similar, but offset by a few Jubilees from the Venus/Regulus pattern. In order to make the patterns easier to identify, the closest of these green highlighted conjunctions have been set apart by black outlining. In general we can see that from one set of these closest conjunctions to the next, is a span that alternates between 20 and 23 Jubilees in length, and that the Spica-oriented span is offset by 4 Jubilees from the Regulus-oriented span. This is the amount of the offset for a large part of the time period covered, from Jubilee 0 up through Jubilee 103. But then in Jubilees 120 – 126 the offset goes to zero, and for the first time ever, we have Jubilees marked by both Venus/Regulus and Venus/Spica conjunctions. Examining the spans between closest conjunctions we can see that it’s the Venus/Regulus span which has shifted to bring about this alignment. Between the year 566 (Jubilee 96) and the year 1889 (Jubilee 123), it has shifted from the expected 23 Jubilees to 27 Jubilees as the length of the span. The reason for this 4-Jubilee shift is that during this time period the Venus/Regulus conjunctions have made a transition from occurring near the end of the lunar year to occurring near the beginning of the following lunar year. This is a result of the gradual shifting of the starting point of the lunar year caused by precession of the equinoxes. The Venus/Spica conjunctions don’t encounter this shift, because they occur about a month later and thus already occur well into the new year at this point in history. Up until this shift, it could be said of Spica and its constellation Virgo, that they mark the beginning of the Mazzaroth, coming (being aligned with the Sun) at the beginning of the fall-oriented lunar year – and that Regulus and its constellation Leo mark the end of the Mazzaroth, coming at the end of the lunar year. But with this shift in the orientation of the Venus/Regulus conjunctions with respect to the lunar year, Leo is making a transition from being the last constellation of the Mazzaroth to now being the first.

The fourth column is about Saturn – using blue highlighting to show which Jubilees are marked at beginning or end by conjunctions of Saturn with Regulus or Spica. As has been more thoroughly investigated elsewhere (see Restoring the Timetable of Sabbath and Jubilee Years, and Saturn, Venus, Jubilee correlation), there are just two time periods in which this Saturn/Regulus pattern is marking Jubilees – for 15 Jubilees between -4738 and -4003, and for 15 Jubilees between 1448 and 2183. During these seasons of conjunctions, it’s typically every third Jubilee that’s marked, just as we saw for Venus. Note the colored [1] or [49] following each Saturn/Regulus conjunction. This indicates whether the conjunction marked the first year or last year of that Jubilee period. If we look at just the most fully-marked cases, in which the Jubilee year itself is marked – the cases marked with [1], this narrows our focus to just two points of greatest interest for each of these two time periods – the years -4150 and -4003, and the years 1889 and 2036. Note that these years are also among the most fully-marked by Venus, with all four being outlined in black in the Venus column – and with the last two being marked by the closest occurrences of both Venus/Regulus and Venus/Spica.

The pattern of Saturn with respect to Spica is similar, but is offset from the Regulus pattern by a very long time span. Again taking the first two marked Jubilee years of each time period to be the points of greatest interest, in the pre-exile period we see the Saturn/Regulus marking in -4150 and -4003 (Jubilees 0 and 3) and the Saturn/Spica marking in -1406 and -1259 (Jubilees 56 and 59). This gives us an offset of 56 Jubilees between Saturn/Regulus and Saturn/Spica. Then in the post-exile period we see the Saturn/Spica marking in -316 and -169 (Jubilees 78 and 81) with the Saturn/Regulus marking in 1889 and 2036 (Jubilees 123 and 126), giving us an offset of 45 Jubilees. The time span of the chart is too short to show a full pre-exile cycle or a full post-exile cycle – but we are able to see half of the cycle on each side of the Babylonian exile. Pre-exile we see 56 Jubilees from Saturn/Regulus to Saturn/Spica; post-exile we see 45 Jubilees from Saturn/Spica to Saturn/Regulus; and putting the two halves of the cycle together we can see that it would go full cycle in 101 Jubilees. This perfectly matches the very-stable 4949-year, 101-Jubilee cycle of Saturn that has been identified in other studies.

Looking at the Saturn/Regulus Jubilee markings, and seeing that the most fully-marked points occur in years that are also fully marked by Venus – given the improbability of this alignment having happened just by chance, a reasonable hypothesis is that they were designed to be this way – that Saturn and Venus were meant to work together in marking these years. If we take the same to be true then for the Saturn/Spica Jubilee markings, we get a very interesting result. It directs our attention to just one single date as the point of greatest interest for the Saturn/Spica series. The year -1406 is the only Jubilee year ever which is marked by both Venus/Spica and Saturn/Spica conjunctions. Making this even more interesting is the historical background of the year 1407/1406 BC. There is a good degree of consensus among present-day scholars that this is the Jubilee year which marked the Israelites’ entrance into the promised land; the very beginning of the nation of Israel (see www.rcyoung.org/articles/solomon.pdf).

The astronomical sign marking this Jubilee year – this conjunction between Saturn and Spica, with Venus & Mars also involved, was discovered by another researcher Dwight Hutchison, author of “The Lion Led the Way”. About this sign he notes that Spica is likely to have a significance related to the land of Israel and the planting of crops, in accordance with its Hebrew name Zerah (seed), and that it makes sense for Saturn to be marking Sabbaths and Jubilees, in accordance with its Hebrew name Shabbetai (Sabbath).

The fifth column is about Jupiter – using purple highlighting to show which Jubilees are marked at beginning or end by conjunctions of Jupiter with Regulus or Spica. We can see that Jupiter’s cycle of Jubilee marking comes close to repeating every 23 Jubilees, though with some shift in quality of the conjunctions, and that the Spica-oriented span is offset by just one Jubilee from the Regulus-oriented span. We can see too that just as has been noted elsewhere, Jupiter has a 7-Jubilee span in which it marks the last year of a Jubilee period, followed by 7 full Jubilee periods, followed by marking the first year of the next Jubilee period. It’s intriguing to see that despite the gap in Jubilee counting at the Babylonian exile, this pattern continues unbroken across the gap. This can be seen beginning with pre-exile Jubilees 66 and 67, and ending with post-exile Jubilees 74 and 75, an 8-Jubilee span just as we find when there is no gap. This is because the length of the gap (12 years, or one Jubilee plus 12 years) comes very close to the length of a single orbit of Jupiter.

Then looking for longer-range spans of interest, we note three points in history at which we have two Jubilees in a row marked by triple conjunctions, with a Jupiter/Regulus triple followed in the next Jubilee by a Jupiter/Spica triple. The dates for these are -3513/-3464, -512/-463, and 3604/3653. From the two post-exile occurrences we can see this overall span to be 4116 years, which is 84 Jubilees, or exactly 12 sevens of Jubilees. When we look across the gap to the one pre-exile occurrence, we do get a different span, showing that despite our previous observation of continuity across the gap, in the long term the gap doesn’t leave the Jupiter cycles entirely unaffected. The span across the gap is 3513 – 512 = 3001. Subtracting the 12 years of the gap, this gives us 2989 years = 61 Jubilees. This is 23 Jubilees short of the full 84 Jubilees we’d expect if there were no gap. But here again we see an explanation for the minimal effect that the gap has on Jupiter’s marking of Jubilees, since the 23 Jubilees by which this period falls short is also one of Jupiter’s Jubilee marking cycles.

Though I have no idea what was going on historically in the pre-exile year -3513, the Jubilee period beginning at this point seems to be quite significantly marked. It’s marked at beginning and end by these triple conjunctions of Jupiter, and as will be seen later is also marked by a Mars/Regulus triple and by a total lunar eclipse in month 7. The post-exile year 3604, though it seems too far in the future even to be relevant, quite interestingly has this same correlation with a Mars/Regulus triple. Then looking at our third point of interest, the year -512, this one comes at a very interesting time in history, after the Babylonian exile has come to an end, and the temple has just been rebuilt. By the analysis presented in Rediscovering an Ancient Chronology, I take this Jubilee to be the 7 sevens of Daniel 9:25. Astronomically it is highly marked, both at beginning and end, and also in the preceding year and following year. Note Jupiter’s part in this – marking this Jubilee so neatly both beginning and end by its triple conjunctions in Jubilee years, first with Regulus, and then with Spica. A beautiful and rare alignment, occurring only three times in all of history.

This occurrence is near the beginning of the post-exile schedule of Jubilees – and then when we look back to the pre-exile schedule, we find another Jupiter/Regulus-marked Jubilee just 12 years earlier, in the year -524, and with both of the Jupiter/Regulus triple conjunctions beginning at the Hebrew New Year, within the first 10 days of the year. For further discussion, see the writeup of Restoring the Timetable of Sabbath and Jubilee Years. It’s rare enough just to find a Jupiter/Regulus triple conjunction beginning at the Hebrew New Year, but to find two of them just 12 years apart, both of which could be marking a Jubilee year, depending on which of two competing schedules are being followed… I take these two parallel signs to be one of several pieces of evidence for the identity of the gap – that the Jubilee which would have begun in the year -524 was to be delayed until the parallel sign 12 years later in the year -512. Quite meaningfully, this also placed the Jubilee year after Darius’ renewal of Cyrus’ decree that the temple be rebuilt (about 520 BC), and after the Temple’s rebuilding was completed (about 515 BC).

The sixth column is about Mars – using red highlighting to show which Jubilees are marked at beginning or end by conjunctions of Mars with Regulus or Spica. For Mars we see that its cycle of Jubilee marking repeats every 19 Jubilees, and that this is a very stable cycle. Neglecting for a moment the effect of the gap during the Babylonian exile, the pattern of a Mars/Regulus triple conjunction every 19 Jubilees continues all the way through from beginning to end. From the marking of year [1] of a Jubilee cycle to the marking of year [49] is a span of 9 Jubilees, and then 10 more Jubilees brings us around to the marking of year [1] again, at the end of the 19-year span. The pattern for Mars/Spica is the same, except that it’s shifted ahead by 2 Jubilees from the Mars/Jupiter pattern. The effect on this Mars cycle of the gap during the Babylonian exile is to shorten the usual 19-Jubilee span to just 12 Jubilees.

Now browsing the chart for Jubilees marked by Mars which may be worthy of special attention, let’s look for the same pattern that was found to be meaningful for Saturn. Looking for Jubilee years marked by Saturn, which are also fully-marked by Venus, being outlined in black in the Venus column, we find just two cases. For the Mars/Regulus series we find the year -720 (Jubilee 70), and for the Mars/Spica series we find the year 909 (Jubilee 103). I’m not aware of any significance for the year 909, but what I find for the year -720 is very interesting. Historically we find that just 2-3 years before this Jubilee, in the year -722, was the conclusion of the siege of Samaria by Assyria. This is when the northern kingdom of Israel was exiled, and the reign of their last king, Hoshea, came to an end (see www.rcyoung.org/articles/samaria.pdf).

The seventh column is about the exceptionally close conjunctions of Venus with Jupiter – using yellow highlighting to show which Jubilees are marked at beginning or end by these conjunctions. These are the conjunctions which were found to be so meaningful in the study Rediscovering an Ancient Chronology, pointing out key dates in the fulfillment of the Daniel 9:25 prophecy of the sevens. Unlike the other conjunctions, these have no discernible pattern (see Rediscovering – Appendix C for more info on this). It seems that to a large degree the Designer of all these things was able to simply place these conjunctions wherever He wanted to specifically point something out, almost like a highlighter pen for marking the timetable of the heavens. Here we won’t be looking at all the cases of this, but there are a few which do point to Jubilee years, and thus show up on this chart. One for which there is a known significance is the Venus/Jupiter conjunction marking Josiah’s Jubilee, Jubilee 72, in the year -622. And then two of them are involved in marking the Jubilee beginning in the year -512, marking it at both ends, with a Venus/Jupiter conjunction marking the year just before it begins, and another one marking the year just after it ends. This is the Jubilee that I take to be the 7 sevens of Daniel 9:25, as outlined in Rediscovering an Ancient Chronology.

The eighth and ninth columns are about lunar eclipses occurring in month 1 or month 7 of the Hebrew lunar year. Column eight shows eclipses which occur in year [1] of a given Jubilee period, while column nine shows eclipses which occur in year [49] of that Jubilee period. The abbreviations T1, T7, P1, and P7 indicate the kind of eclipse and which month it occurred in, with “T” being total and “P” being partial. Any total eclipse, or pair of eclipses which include a total eclipse, is highlighted in dark brown. A partial eclipse or pair of partial eclipses is highlighted in light brown. The resulting pattern shows that during a season of month 1 & month 7 Jubilee eclipses, it’s generally every 3 or 4 Jubilees that we get a Jubilee year marked by a total eclipse, for a total of about 7 total eclipses in a span of about 26 Jubilees. The season then fades and for a very long period of time we get no Jubilees at all marked by month 1 or month 7 eclipses. During this time it’s eclipses in months 2/8, months 3/9, months 4/10, etc that mark the Jubilees, but these have been left out of the chart, in order to better focus on these two most meaningful months of the Hebrew calendar, months 1 and 7. When the pattern has wrapped back around to months 1/7 again, a new season of Jubilee eclipses begins. It takes a total of 64 Jubilees for the pattern to wrap around and repeat. For Jubilee eclipses, the offset introduced by crossing over the gap at the Babylonian exile is 14 Jubilees in length. The 64-Jubilee cycle is surprisingly stable, meaning that 64 Jubilees from a given total eclipse, we’re likely to find another total eclipse. But this is a long enough time span that when we count up this many Jubilees it will very likely involve a crossing of the gap, making the total time span between similar eclipses 64 + 14 = 78 Jubilees.

Comparing the cycle of Mars with the cycle of lunar eclipses, we find another interesting correlation. Note that from one Jubilee conjunction of Mars to the similar one which occurs 19 Jubilees before or after, we also tend to find a similar pattern of eclipses. The quality of the eclipses is not a close match, fairly quickly shifting from Total to Partial or vice versa, but on the chart we can find as many as 3 eclipses in a row separated by 19 Jubilees each, before the eclipse fades and no longer occurs at a given position in the pattern.

Some cases of special interest as we browse through the list of eclipses:

Once again, the year -3513, Jubilee 13, stands out. This Jubilee year is marked not only by Jupiter/Regulus and Mars/Regulus triple conjunctions, but as we now see, it’s also marked by a total eclipse in month 7.

Then we find Jubilee 20, beginning in the year -3170, to be marked both beginning and end by both Venus/Regulus and by total eclipses, and with the end specially marked by Venus/Jupiter. This is quite a rare occurrence to have a Jubilee period marked both beginning and end by total eclipses. The next occurrence we see of this is right where we might expect based on the patterns we’ve observed – 78 Jubilees later, in Jubilee 98, beginning in the year 664. This one too seems to be specially marked. Besides the total eclipses at beginning and end, it’s marked at the beginning by a Jupiter/Spica triple.

The eclipses of Jubilee 20 are marking roughly the center of that Jubilee eclipse season. That season comes to an end, with its last total Jubilee eclipse happening in -2435, Jubilee 35. Then in the year -573 we find another eclipse season just beginning. This happens at Ezekiel’s Jubilee, and this first total Jubilee eclipse since the year -2435 provides it with a significant marking. I take it to be another pointer from the old Jubilee schedule to the new, marking Ezekiel’s Jubilee as an endpoint. According to the new schedule, the Jubilee year will be 12 years later in the year -561, marked in the preceding year -562 by a Mars/Regulus triple.

Because of the Babylonian exile and the resulting gap, the Jubilee schedule shifts soon after -573, making the -573 eclipse the only Jubilee eclipse of that season. The season restarts just where we’d expect based on the patterns we’ve observed, 14 Jubilees later in Jubilee 87, and then this season ends at another one of those special points where a Jubilee period is marked both beginning and end by total eclipses, at Jubilee 113. Here we see a very interesting connection. In the year 1447, just as we’re seeing the last total Jubilee eclipse of the season, in this same year we’re seeing the first of the new series of Saturn/Regulus Jubilee conjunctions. The interesting connection is simply that these two seasons don’t overlap – the Jubilee eclipse season, and the season of Saturn/Regulus’ marking of Jubilees. Browsing back through the centuries, we find this always to be the case. When a Saturn/Regulus or Saturn/Spica series is underway, there are no Jubilees marked by total eclipses. And when a Jubilee eclipse season is underway, we get no Saturn/Regulus or Saturn/Spica Jubilee markings. The periods in between when neither is happening are usually relatively short – six Jubilees from -4003 to -3709, eight Jubilees from -2435 to -1995, eleven Jubilees from -1112 to -573, and three Jubilees from -22 to the year 125. The major exception is 25 Jubilees from 2036 to 3261, a period of over a thousand years. The year before the new Jubilee eclipse season begins in 3261 is also marked in an interesting way, with Jupiter/Regulus and Mars/Spica triples marking the year 3260, and then the very next year, the Jubilee year, marked by this total lunar eclipse in month 7.

Much more study could be done and should be done. We’ve seen enough just with these initial observations to be able to recognize genuine patterns – patterns which can’t reasonably be explained away as just random coincidences. We can clearly see the hand of a designer in having aligned all these things as we find them to be aligned.

In working a puzzle, I’ve always preferred to start with the edge pieces. They’re usually easily identified by shape, and then together they create a framework within which the more difficult, more subjective, meaning-based sections of the puzzle can find their proper places. In this study we’ve already been looking at edge pieces – paying attention to the beginning and end of the Mazzaroth; and the beginnings and endings of Jubilee cycles.

The clearest correlation I’m seeing from the observations of this study is the year 1407/1406 BC. This year is known historically to be a pre-exile Jubilee year, and scholars have identified it according to the chronological cues of Scripture to be the one which marked the Israelites’ entrance into the promised land back when the nation of Israel had its beginning. And its astronomical markings are clear. It can be characterized in general terms as a Jubilee period which was marked both beginning and end by Venus/Regulus or Venus/Spica conjunctions, with the Jubilee year also being marked by a double or triple conjunction of one of the other visible planets with Regulus or Spica. If we look for all other Jubilee periods marked in this way for the time span from 5200 BC to 4200 AD, we end up with the following relatively short list, in which the number of Jubilees from -1406 to each point is shown at the end of each entry:

Now, we also find the number “seven” deeply entrenched in the patterns that we’ve been studying here. The period which turns out to be so significantly marked, the Jubilee cycle, is made up of a seven of sevens. Suppose we take this one level higher, focusing in on the points which fall at a boundary between sevens of Jubilees, counting from the -1406 occurrence. These occurrences are shown in bold in the above list, and looking at just these occurrences we now get a very short list:

Notice that these four points mark out two overlapping periods of 70 Jubilees each, with the portion that belongs to both time periods being the time span of Israel’s existence – from the crossing of the Jordan to the fall of Samaria. I think this may well be the most basic framework to be found, upon which all the rest can eventually find its proper place. For the overall starting and ending points of this marked time span, the Saturn and Venus correlations shown on this chart had left us with both -4150 and -4003 as reasonable starting points, and with both 1889 and 2036 as reasonable ending points. But the observations of Restoring the Timetable of Sabbath and Jubilee Years, displayed graphically in the chart Saturn, Venus, Jubilee correlation, suggest -4150 and 2036 as the more likely endpoints of this marked time span, and now we see this “sevens of Jubilees” perspective giving us the same answer.

I still prefer not to make any strong claims regarding overall starting and ending points – but to be true to what the analysis seems to be telling us, I need to accept as a hypothesis anyway that -4150 could be marking the beginning of man’s life on earth, the creation of Adam and Eve on day 6 of the Creation account, and 2036 could be marking the end date when the Messiah is likely to return and begin His millennial reign. But certainly we can also say that any future dates are ultimately in the Father’s hands, and His choice of timing isn’t going to be dependent on our interpretations and partial understandings of things. Whatever He has decided and decreed is what we can expect Him to do. And just to add a bit of healthy ambiguity to our expectations, note that the fall of Samaria, according to the best available scholarship on its chronology, didn’t happen right at a Jubilee, but about 2 1/2 years before.